Colombo, April 5 : Indian surgeons based in this Sri Lanka capital and working for Apollo Hospital successfully performed a complex heart surgery on a four-year-old Pakistani boy who had flown here for treatment.

"We were brothers and sisters and I am sure this will bring us together," said Prathap C. Reddy, chairman of the Apollo Hospital Group, about the operation on Khizar Raza Tuesday. The boy's family will fly back to Karachi Wednesday.

Khizar was born with "blue baby syndrome", with his heart located on the right side of the chest with only one chamber instead of two vents, which is normal.

Pakistanis get visa on arrival in Sri Lanka and the Razas, with the help of the Rotary Club and a social service group called Gift of Life, came to Colombo March 3 to the Apollo Hospital, part of the Chennai-headquartered chain of hospitals. The hospital had been recommended for the complicated surgery.

Khizar was operated on March 9 using a complicated surgical procedure for four hours. The surgery achieved its goal and impure blood in his body was diverted to the lungs by special tubes so that the child, for the first time in his life, had 100 percent oxygen level like any normal boy of his age.

"It was like treating a family who had left us 58 years ago," said Prasad Krishan, who operated on the boy.

Khizar's father Tayyab Raza works in the Union Bank and nearly came to tears at a news conference. He thanked the hospital staff and said he thought his son would never be normal. "I am so happy that I can't tell you," said Tayyab.

Unconcerned about the media attention, Khizar held on to a microphone and shouted: "Thank you, thank you."

(IANS)

HI

Post subject: Khizar Raza will now live normally

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2005 4:43 am

Landmark heart surgeryKhizar Raza will now live normally

by Steve A. Morrell / Sunday Island 10APR2005

Khizar Raza of Karachi, Pakistan, was born a ‘Blue Baby’ or with the dreaded ‘Blue Baby Syndrome’, an abnormal heart condition where several streams of blood enter the same chamber through 7 separate channels. To compound complications diagnosis indicated blood from the liver was draining into the heart through another distinct channel.

Early last week the Cardiac team form Apollo Hospitals said that surgical procedure to normalize life for Khizar Raza was done at Apollo (Colombo). Young Khizar was present at a press conference with his parents. He seemingly was a normal child of 4 with no indication he had, early last month, undergone major heart surgery.

Consultant, Cardiac Surgeon, Apollo Hospitals Colombo, Dr. Prasad Krishnan, Team Leader of the Group who performed the surgery said Khizar’s case was particularly complicating because he had been operated at age 2 months, and again at New Jersey, USA sometime later. Recuperation after latter surgery took about a year, he said.

Dr. Krishnan said that complications surfaced again, when it was found that Khizar’s heart was located on the right of the chest with only a single heart channel, instead of the normal condition of two channels. "The blue baby syndrome, in this case, was caused because of a defect in the formation of the heart".

Doctors had to separate areas where blue and pink blood was pumped to the heart to a single chamber into 7 different pipes without obstructing functioning of usual heart movement which involved precise re-structuring work. This was carried out by the surgeons at Apollo in Colombo. Dr. Krishnan said that re-structuring was complicated because of 2 previous operations which left behind scarring around the heart. The procedure, he said was also complicating because of the uniqueness of complications which had set in.

Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group Dr. Prathap Reddy addressing a tele-conferenced press briefing from India said that this was one of many options available at Apollo which has progressed to add value to opportunities for health tourism. He said cost of medical services was competitive and could be one reason to attract tourists across the globe to vacation here and take advantage of comparatively low cost medi-care facilities.

In Khizar Raza’s case this was quite apparent, because if this procedure was done in any other part of the world cost would have been prohibitive.

It was also of salutary note that Rotary International had intervened through the Rotary District of Sri Lanka to facilitate required funds. Rotary District Governor Elect 2005-2006 Nihal Bogahalanda said that through the Rotary Foundation and the Gift Of Life Programme initiated by Rotary District 7250, in 1975, this operation was made possible. Through this programme children who require corrective heart surgery could be assisted.

He said children from around the world have benefited from this programme. Approximately 2700 children from over 30 countries have been beneficiaries of ‘the Gift of Life’, he said.